Mrs.+O'Connor

In early October of 1883, Bridget O'Connor, a widow, died from a criminal abortion in Halifax. "Dr. Archibald Lawson, a prominent physician, has fled to avoid arrest."

Dr. John A. Lanigan testified about important facts that were not revealed in news coverage. Policeman Louis Keffler was the one who discovered the dying woman; he summoned Dr. Lanigan. Bridget's mother, Catharine Shaw, also testified. (**[|The Toronto Daily Mail - Oct 11, 1883]**)

I have since learned that Bridget's abortion took place in Canada. I will not delete the page because of possible links to it, but I will remove Bridget from the main page of the Cemetery of Choice, which deals with US abortion deaths only.

I have no information on overall maternal mortality, or abortion mortality, in the 19th century. I imagine it can't be too much different from maternal and abortion mortality at the very beginning of the 20th Century. Note, please, that with issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more on this era, see [|Abortion Deaths in the 19th Century]. For more on pre-legalization abortion, see [|The Bad Old Days of Abortion] Sources:


 * "Abortion", //Winona Daily Republican//, Oct. 9, 1883

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